PART 1 Expressions
1. Carmakers looking to put a modicum of effort into their ads have been hawking the exact same things for decades: a car with a bit more room, a few extra miles per gallon, better handling, or an extra cup holder.
a modicum of:? [?m?d?k?m] a small amount of sth, especially a good quality
a modicum of common sense
hawk: (vt.) to try to sell goods, usually by going from place to place and trying to persuade people to buy them
2. Those that can’t find anything interesting at all to tout about their cars turn to scantily clad women, men with British accents, and, when necessary, dancing mice in tuxedos to try and convince people that their products are better than the rest.
tout : [ta?t]
1. to praise sth or sb in order to persuade people that they are important or worth a lot
Nell is being touted as the next big thing in Hollywood.
2. to try to persuade people to buy goods or service you are offering
tout for business/ custom = look for customers
scanty: not enough; scanty clothes are small and do not cover much of your body
clad: (a.) wearing a particular kind of clothing
warmly/ suitably/ scantily clad = dressed warmly/ suitably/ scantily
3. There were massive touch-screens where people could calculate how much they might save on fuel costs by moving to an all-electric car, and where they could configure the look and add-ons for their future Model S.
1. a product that is designed to be used with another product
2. something extra that is added to an existing plan, agreement, law etc
We bought legal protect as an add-on to our home insurance policy.
4. In the e-mail, Musk said that four hundred customers who had already placed their orders for a Roadster but not yet received them would bear the brunt of the price change and need to cough up the extra cash.
brunt: 沖擊踩身；撞擊
bear/ take/ suffer etc the brunt of sth: to receive the worst part of an attack, criticism, bad situation etc
an industry that bore the brunt of the recession
The car took the full brunt of the explosion.
5. He tried to assuage Tesla’s customer base by arguing that the company had no choice but to raise prices.
assuage: SYN relieve, to make an unpleasant feeling less painful or severe
Nothing could assuage his guilt.
base: the people, money, groups etc that form the main part of sth
By broadening the tax base(= all the people who pay taxes), he could raise more revenues.
an attempt to strengthen the city's economic base(= things that produce jobs and money)
The country's manufacturing base(=all the factories, companies etc that produce goods in a country) has shrunk by 20%.
6. Ever since, Musk has tried to turn any snafu with a Tesla into an excuse to show off the company’s attention to service and dedication to pleasing the customer.
snafu: [sn??fu:]? informal, a situation in which a plan does not happen in the way it should
(軍語) 軍中老鳥罵菜鳥的話 situation normal, all fucked up
There were no major snafus.
7. It must have been excruciating for Eberhard to agree to put that in writing and the very existence of that statement points to Musk’s skills and tactics as a hard-line negotiator.
excruciate: (v.) 使受酷刑；折磨
excruciating: [?k?skru:?ie?t??] extremely painful or unpleasant
When I bend my arm, the pain is excruciating.
His poetry is excruciatingly bad.
8. There would be no Tesla to talk about today were it not for Musk’s money, marketing savvy, chicanery, engineering smarts, and indomitable spirit.
chicanery: [???ke?n?ri] (n.) 詭計(jì)；欺詐
Clearly there is some chicanery going on.
indomitable: having great determination or courage and thus incapable of being subdued
Alice was a woman of indomitable spirit/ will/ courage.
9. As difficult as birthing the Roadster had been, the adventure had whetted Musk’s appetite for what he could accomplish in the automotive industry with a clean slate.
whet one's appetite for sth: increase one's desire for sth (whet 本意是在石頭上磨刀)
clean slate/ sheet: a record of sb's work, behavior, performance etc that shows they have not done anything wrong or made any mistakes
Jed looked forward to starting life again with a clean slate/ sheet.
Lewis has kept a clean sheet in every game (= not let the other team score).
clean hands: do sth in a fair or legal way
Neither side is coming to the negotiation table with completely clean hands.
10. Los Angeles has long adored its cars, with the climate lending itself to all manner of vehicles from convertibles to surfboard-toting vans.
lend itself to sth: to be suitable for being used in a particular way
None of her books really lends itself to being made into a film.
lend (your) support to sth: to support or help
The government has now lent its support to the campaign.
lend your name to sth: to announce publicly that you support sth that sb is trying to do
The French prime minister has now lent his name to the protest.
11. Musk instantly saw von Holzhausen, with his bouffant, trendy clothes and laid-back attitude, as a free-spirited, creative complement and wooed him with vigor.
laid-back: (a.) relaxed and seeming not to be worried about sth
I don't know how you can be so laid-back about your exams.
laid-back attitude/ manner/ approach etc
12. Musk’s presence added to the energy and gave von Holzhausen confidence that Tesla actually could outflank much, much larger competitors.
outflank: (v.) 1. 從側(cè)翼包抄; 2. to gain an advantage over an opponent, especially in politics
The Tories found themselves outflanked by Labor on the issue of law and order.
PART 2 Thoughts
Musk had set out to make an electric car that did not suffer from any compromises. He did that. Then, using a form of entrepreneurial judo, he upended the decades of criticisms against electric cars. The Model S was not just the best electric car; it was best car, period, and the car people desired. ... Musk had never run a car factory before and was considered arrogant and amateurish by Detroit. ... Elon Musk had built the automotive equivalent of the iPhone. And car executives in Detroit, Japan, and Germany had only their crappy ads to watch as they pondered how such a thing had occurred.
讀到過這樣一個(gè)故事：把一個(gè)會(huì)跳的小蟲子放在瓶子里贴谎，它明明可以跳得很高欺税，但把蓋子蓋上以后爽冕，蟲子碰到頂蓋掉下來了谐岁，它反復(fù)條跳躍骡湖，卻越跳越低充石。這時(shí)候再把蓋子擰開莫换，看見小蟲子還在跳，但它已經(jīng)永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)跳出這個(gè)瓶子了骤铃，因?yàn)樗J(rèn)為拉岁，頭頂上那個(gè)蓋子將是不可逾越的。Tesla的成功顛覆了之前汽車行業(yè)對(duì)與電動(dòng)車的判斷惰爬，在Tesla之前也有具備實(shí)力的公司嘗試過電動(dòng)車喊暖，但是它們被自己所設(shè)定的邊界給限制住了，即使很多以前存在的瓶頸已經(jīng)可以跨越了撕瞧，但它們還是束縛自己的手腳不敢去前進(jìn)陵叽。在生活或工作中總會(huì)遇到一些人告訴我們說，這個(gè)是不可能的丛版，那個(gè)是不現(xiàn)實(shí)的巩掺，但真正可怕的不是外界的嘲諷，而是那些評(píng)價(jià)被我們內(nèi)化成自我判斷的一種標(biāo)尺页畦， 是我們自己給自己套上了枷鎖胖替。小學(xué)里經(jīng)常有老師對(duì)我說，你稿子寫的很好，但你臺(tái)上講的沒有你寫的好独令。很長時(shí)間里這種評(píng)價(jià)一直束縛著我端朵，中學(xué)到大學(xué)里我經(jīng)常自愿做幕后的人，能把上臺(tái)發(fā)表的機(jī)會(huì)讓給別人的都讓了燃箭，導(dǎo)致我每次獨(dú)立做報(bào)告的時(shí)候都非常緊張和手足無措逸月。但其實(shí)回過頭想，并非我的性格或能力天生不適合上臺(tái)演講遍膜，而是我之前錯(cuò)過了很多鍛煉的機(jī)會(huì)碗硬，是我自己給自己設(shè)定了那個(gè)看似無法逾越的界限。
